Conventionally, in order to find survivors, rescue dogs have been used in the scene of a disaster, thereby getting excellent results. However, since the rescue dogs need training and have a limited life, it has been required to mechanize a process of finding survivors in the scene of a disaster.
Further, people know through common experience that a body smell of an individual person generally varies in accordance with a condition of the body. In order to use smell data as a mechanism for carrying out medical diagnosis, digitization of the body smell has been required.
In recent years, with the development of an information-oriented society, in order to improve security in managing a variety of information, a personal authentication system that has high reliability and excellent convenience has been required.
The technical field is associated with the present invention. However, as an example, the case where a biometrics sensor is applied to an authentication system will be hereinafter described.
At the present time, as personal authentication methods, authentication methods based on a password or an ID card is generally used. However, these authentication methods are insufficient in terms of security in managing information, because there is a risk that the information maybe lost, robbed, or forged. Accordingly, an authentication method using biometrics that has no such risk has attracted attention.
The biometrics is a technique that identifies an individual person by using “information unique to an individual person”, such as a physical characteristic or a behavioral characteristic. At the present time, a biometrics sensor generally means an apparatus using a fingerprint, an iris, or a vein pattern, and it has widely been put to practical use.
In general, it has been known that an individual person has a unique “odor type” as a body smell. For example, P. Wallance has reported that a person can distinguish another person by using a body smell diffused from a palm and has suggested that the kind of causative substance of a body smell can be affected by heredity and diet (Physiology & Behavior, vol. 19, pp. 577-579, Pergamon Press and Brain Research Publ., 1977). This is because a composition ratio of organic acids and alcohols in a body smell is different depending on an MHC (major histocompatibility complex) type. FIG. 13 shows materials whose composition ratios are reported to be different due to differences in the MHC types and the structural formulae of the materials.
[Known Example 1]
As a known example that is relatively similar to the present invention, there is a hydrophobic group pattern recognition sensor that is developed by the present inventors (“Detection of a Hydrophobic Group Pattern of Smell Materials for Biometrics” by Koide, Masunaga, Hayashi, and Toko in the 58th Joint Conference of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Kyushu, page 230, 05-2P-19). The hydrophobic group pattern recognition sensor uses an oil droplet as a hydrophobic group absorption and recognition portion that absorbs a smell material. And this sensor monitors a fluorescence intensity variation of a fluorescent probe in the oil droplet using a fluorescent analysis method. As the fluorescent probe, diphenylhexatriene is used.
While, in the known example 1, the oil droplet is used and a smell material absorbed into the oil droplet is detected, the present invention is different from the known example 1 in that a liquid is not used, as will be described later.
[Known Example 2]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-148985 discloses a personal authentication system, where it is described that biological information including a body smell may be used as information to be input. However, in this document, the configuration of an input device for inputting a smell or the like is not specifically described.
[Known Example 3]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-129032 discloses a biometrics authentication system. However, in this document, the specific configuration that is needed to input a smell as authentication information is not described.
[Known Example 4]
Amy C. Eklund et al. have analyzed samples of a Hutterite group using denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC). In addition, based on the analysis result, Amy C. Eklund et al. have reported that an “allele” is formed by diversification of a receptor gene of a hallucination associated with human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and diversity of an odor type associated with the HLA can be found (Human Immunology 61, 711-717 (2000)). This document is also different from the present invention in that a liquid sample is used, similarly to the known example 1.
Further, in the case of a conventional biometrics sensor, for example, when an individual person is authenticated, the person needs to move his finger, eye or palm close to the biometrics sensor. For this reason, there is a disadvantage that it is troublesome for an authentication object person being authenticated. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a biometrics sensor in which a smell or a body smell is used and which is advantageously capable of remotely measuring biological information to save the trouble of an authentication object person.